". . . full of apologies for her informal dress . . ."

CCXXXI

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan touch down at Darwin, N.T., Australia

On June 28, 1937, Earhart and Noonan finally lifted off from Koepang, N.E.I. and crossed the Timor Sea to “the top end” of the continent of Australia to arrive in the Territorial capital of Darwin. They must have both been relieved. It had taken them a full week to cross the East Indies. They had traveled much farther, and faster, when they crossed the lonely Sahel in Africa. They would overnight in English-speaking Darwin.

Darwin was anything but exotic in 1937, but Amelia needed its field crew desperately. The RDF was not working properly yet again, and needed adjustments she did not know how to make. With the transpacific hop only days away, a malfunctioning Radio Direction Finder could mean death

Of dusty Darwin, then little more than a frontier town, Amelia wrote: 

The country of this northern coast of Australia . . . as far as one could see, were endless trees on an endless plain. The airport is good and very easy to find. We were pounced upon by a doctor as we rolled to a stop, and thereupon were examined thoroughly for tropical diseases. No one could approach us or the airplane until we had passed muster. If this work is done at all it should be thorough, and I approved the methods, although the formalities delayed refueling operations. The customs officials had to clear the Electra as if she were an ocean-going vessel, but that was done with much dispatch. Inasmuch as we had little in the plane but spare parts, fuel and oil, the process was simplified. At Darwin, by the way, we left the parachutes we had carried that far, to be shipped home. A parachute would not help over the Pacific.

Amelia, standing on the wing of the Electra. She looks utterly drained in this photograph

The Brisbane Courier Mail of Tuesday 29 June 1937 was far more effusive as it reported:

MISS EARHART ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA

HEARTY WELCOME AT DARWIN

Good Conditions Over Timor

OFF TO NEW GUINEA TO-DAY

MISS AMELIA EARHART (Mrs. Putnam), accompanied by her navigator, Mr. Fred Noonan, of Pan-American Airways, landed at the Ross Smith aerodrome at 11.25 A.M. Assisted by almost perfect flying conditions, which only yesterday replaced intense and persistent headwinds, the Lockheed Electra came roaring in high from the Timor Sea. It took the town by surprise, but immediately the sound of the powerful twin engines was heard people flocked to the aerodrome.

Bidding the great woman flyer welcome on behalf, of all Australia, Darwin greeted her with one of the brightest and mildest days in the calendar. The welcome was headed by the official party from the Residency. Although her companion appeared to be little affected by the long flight, Miss Earhart looked tired when she appeared smilingly before the crowd. She was hurried away to a quiet room in the Civil Aviation Administrative block to discuss with her agents arrangements for her short stay.

One of her first actions was to ask for the civil aviation officer (Mr. Alan Collins) and inquire whether two Irvin caterpillar parachutes had been delivered from America. Fully tested and ready for immediate use, the parachutes were waiting in Mr. Collins' office. A safeguard against emergency, they will be carried on the hazardous final stages of the marathon flight. Then Miss Earhart asked to meet Mr. Dwyer, who has charge of the highly efficient meteorological station at the aerodrome. She thanked him for guidance and assistance. It has cost the Government more than £20 for cables and wireless messages used in dispatching weather forecasts to the Lockheed since it first approached Australia. Miss Earhart plans to continue the flight at daybreak, tomorrow. She will fly direct to Lae, New Guinea.

On arrival she said she had intended to wait at Darwin only for re-fuelling purposes, but the late arrival made it impossible for her to cover the next stage of the journey in daylight. There was no necessity to take the risk of a night landing. When she was invited to dine at Government House she smiled, and pointed to the brown slacks and blue and brown check blouse she was wearing, and asked to be excused. 'These are the only clothes I have,' she added. During the afternoon, full of apologies for her informal dress, she called on the Administrator (Mr. Abbott) and she astounded him with her knowledge of Australia. She told Mr. Abbott she was very disappointed at not being able to see more of the Commonwealth. All day she has been busy hurrying backwards and forwards from the aerodrome, because she insisted on personally supervising the refuelling of the machine. She is staying to-night at the hotel which has housed almost all the many distinguished aviators who have visited Darwin.

Blue-eyed Miss Earhart, from whose close-cropped hair a fringe curls disconcertingly across her forehead, has a personality of ever-changing moods of gaiety and gravity. From the moment she landed at Darwin she insisted that she should be known as Amelia Earhart, and not as Mrs. Putnam. The Administrator's car broke down as it was conveying her to the township for lunch, and nothing could dissuade her from immediately examining the trouble and prescribing a remedy. She was right in her diagnosis, as mechanics discovered later. This morning she checked every gallon which went into the tanks of the Lockheed. She refused to let any one assist with the writing of her exclusive story. She borrowed a type-writer, and completed the work as she ate her lunch.

In the afternoon it was discovered that the wireless on the 'plane was useless through some unknown defect. It had been out of order during the crossing of the Timor. The airwoman climbed into the cockpit, clamped on the earphones, and proceeded to make tests herself. This time she was baffled, and eventually Sergeant Stan Rose, who has charge of the Darwin direction-finding radio station, came to her aid, and the trouble was righted in a few moments. 'Lady Lindy' thanked the mere man charmingly and sincerely, and said she hoped she would be able to do as much for an Australian if he visited the United States.

Not an inch nor an ounce is wasted inside the machine. The navigator's table, equipped with electric lamp, chronometer, and numerous gauges, is fashioned across the top of the additional fuel tanks which fill most of the cabin. The sextant is fastened beneath a window. The butt of a heavy service revolver pokes out from a holster near the door of the cabin.

If all goes well, Miss Earhart should be back in America before the end of this week. She said last night that she proposed to cover the final stage of the journey in four long hops. Tomorrow she will fly to Lae. The next day she plans, to reach Howland Island, then Honolulu, and finally Oakland (California). Miss Earhart took off from Miami, Florida, on her round-the-world flight, with Captain Noonan as navigator, at 7:40 A.M. on June 1st and landed at San Juan, on the Island of Puerto Rico, the same day. Next day she flew to Paramaribo, in Dutch Guiana, landing on June 3rd. On June 4th, she took off for Natal, in Brazil, but decided to land at Fortaleza, from which she contemplated making her Atlantic crossing. However, on June 6th she left for Natal, and from there, on the following day, she took off across the Atlantic, landing at Dakar, in West Africa. Thence she flew to Gao, in French West Africa, and to Khartoum, which she reached on June 13th. The next stages were to Massawa, Assab (Eritrea) and Karachi. During the last stage of this portion of the flight she crossed both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. She reached Karachi on June 15th and Calcutta on June 17th. Leaving Calcutta on June 18th she was forced down by bad weather at Akyab. Then she flew to Bangkok and on to Rangoon and Singapore. She left Singapore on Monday of last week, and arrived at Bandoeng at 11:00 A.M. the same day. There she was delayed by an overhaul to her machine before making her next 'hop' to Darwin.

While in Darwin, Amelia smiles for the camera but pure exhaustion is evident in her posture

Interestingly, the Brisbane Courier Mail makes much about the delivery of parachutes for use over the Pacific, while Amelia reports that the parachutes were packed and sent home. It’s possible the paper could have flipped the story on its head. Likewise, there’s no record of Amelia keeping a “heavy service revolver” aboard the Electra. It may have been a Very’s flare pistol which would look like a revolver to the average observer (although the flare gun had been packed and sent off quite a while before). A less-likely error was the report that the “wireless” had gone bad. The Radio Direction Finder had been one of the several systems that had been on (and off) the blink recently. Amelia was shown how to change fuses by one of the ground crew mechanics.

An obviously haggard Amelia talks with Fred Noonan at the Electra’s cabin door. When this picture was published after their disappearance many people wondered why Earhart and Noonan had pushed themselves evidently too hard to complete the Worldflight. Much blame fell on George Putnam, most of it unjustly